It Might Break

A little while back, one of my children came to me crying. Their shield had broken. I said, "Wow awesome! Did a dragon take a bite out of it or was it hit by a sword?" My child was not amused and could not be persuaded that this defect is ok. Perhaps it makes the shield more tough because it has already been through battle? Not in his eyes.

The broken shield brought to the surface a fear that something would happen to his other toys. He began to tell his brother about other toys, "We shouldn't play with that. It might break." If the toy was special, it needed saved. Watching this happen was comical. He was essentially saying, "We shouldn't play with that. If we play with it now, we may not get to play with it later." And later never came. So now it never gets played with at all.

Before you judge the logic of my children, allow me to challenge some similar adult logic. Those are my nice shoes. I can't wear them everyday. Those are the nice dishes. We need to save them for a special occasion. The shoes are only worn a handful of times and they are now out of style, barely used or enjoyed. The occasions for the special dishes are often passed up because children may be present. They may get broken. Yes! They may get broken. They are things. They will not last forever. From the time they are created they are wearing out and breaking down. So enjoy them while you can! Don't wait until a special occasion to pull out the dishes. Make this Saturday night special and use them now. If they break, we can say we enjoyed them. I am certain we will enjoy them more using them than we will keeping them packed in a box somewhere. Put on the nice shoes! Wear them everyday until there is no wear left in them. I would rather feel like I have cute shoes on everyday for 3 months than 7 times over 3 years. Let's learn a lesson from my children. Let's use things now because later may never arrive. Then we will have never used them at all.